The invention relates to insulation installation and, more particularly, to an apparatus for unrolling bulk rolls of insulation in vertical strips from the top down.
The inspiration for the apparatus in accordance with the invention—ie., for unrolling bulk rolls of insulation in vertical strips from the top down—comes from the construction industry. More particularly, it comes from the work done to hang the wall insulation and the cladding sheet metal thereover to pre-engineered and/or structural steel buildings.
Pre-engineered and/or structural steel buildings are a representative construction option for factories or warehouses and the like. The walls of such buildings are typically constructed of ‘studs’ of structural steel stood as spaced columns, or otherwise as stood in a formation referred to as a balustrade. The studs of structural steel may be heavy I-beams. This balustrade of studs typically carries multiple rows of vertically spaced cross members, which are typically called wall ‘girts.’ (Their counterparts running across the roof are typically called ‘purlins,’ but sometimes the usage between the two terms is mixed.) In the case of pre-engineered steel buildings, the wall girts typically comprise cold roll sheet metal formed into C-shaped channels (or Z-shapes and so on). The wall girts for structural steel buildings are much more heavy duty, like C-shaped channels in schedule 40 grade.
A common height for the walls of these buildings is 107 feet high (˜32 m high) (and, these buildings will be even taller at the crown of the roofs). The wall girts can be spaced apart anywhere between about two feet apart in elevation to seven feet (between about ˜0.6 m and ˜2.1 m). The spacing between wall girts is specified by the design plans and depends on such design factors as wind load and so on. Customarily, the typical spacing between wall girts is about five feet apart (˜1.5 m). Insulation is applied in vertical strips to the outside of these wall girts in strips typically in widths anywhere between about (and without limitation) four and six feet (˜1.2 to ˜1.8 m). An example of the manner of how this insulation is hung according to the prior art includes the following.
One serious challenge to hanging insulation like this is, the wind. Even a moderate wind will frustrate or complicate the job for the installers at every step of the process. The conventional way of hanging this insulation is to quilt the insulation together in small pieces. Twenty-five foot long or so (˜7.6 m) strips of insulation are cut off stock rolls that are six foot laterally wide or so (˜1.7 m wide) and maybe have a plush thickness or depth of six inches or so (˜0.15 m). It is also conventional to, deploy boom loaders to do this work. And not just one, but a tandem of two. Each boom loader supports an aerial work platform at the end of a telescopic or articulating boom. Both of the two boom loaders are conventionally crewed by a two person crew. The crews of the two boom loaders work in concert to handle and hang each small strip, one strip at a time. In addition to those four personnel in the boom loaders, a ground assistant works non-stop to serially supply the crews of the boom loaders with the many small strips.
The small strips are hung by having their top edges attached first. So for a short time-being, the whole weight of the strip is carried only by the attachment along its top edge alone. However, as soon as the crew can get around to it, the strip is fastened with back-up attachments at several more belts at elevations below its top edge. One reason to keep the strips under twenty-five feet or so (˜7.6 m) is:—so that the strips just don't tear apart (for the short time-being while hung from their top edges only) under the force of their own weight. Another reason is to combat the wind from making the strips overly crooked or billowed (eg., in full sail) when fastened. That is, the effect of wind tends to make the fastened strip not straight or else warped out between the left and right sides.
The small strips have to meet at splices at the short top and bottom ends to attain the full one-hundred and seven feet height (˜32 m height) of the wall. The small strips have to meet at splices along the long left and right sides with neighboring strips. The more seamless and neat the splices are, the better climate barrier the quilt-work of insulation serves as a whole for the building.
It is a problem for the insulation crew that, even when five workers strong, the insulation crew is barely able to stay ahead of the sheet metal cladding crew because of the work of splicing together so many small strips of insulation.
Given the foregoing, while insulation is hung this way according to the prior art, there are certain undesirable outcomes. One is, keeping the strips straight is difficult. Two is, splicing one not quite straight strip to another not quite straight strip is also difficult, especially when the two strips are on even just slightly different slants. Three is, the edges seldom meet up seamlessly . . . and so on.
The splices are visible from the inside of the building. Not only that but, the splices are visible from the inside of the building—for the life of the building. However, the horizontal splices between the ends of the small strips are particularly unsightly. And, the horizontal splices only become more unsightly as the building ages. As time extends, the vinyl covering for the insulation (which serves as the interior surface of the outer walls of the building), often (very often) becomes covered with a film of grime. For a variety of reasons, the grime collects more intensely around the splices at the horizontal seams between the ends of such strips. It is not known if the horizontal seams between the ends of such strips serve as shelves or ledges to intensify the collection of such grime. Regardless, those portions of the splices just become more unsightly over time.
What is needed is a solution over the shortcomings of the prior art.
It is an object of the invention to overcome the shortcomings of the prior art.
A number of additional features and objects will be apparent in connection with the following discussion of the preferred embodiments and examples with reference to the drawings.